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Quinoa Ladoos – a Healthy Treat!

“Quinoa Ladoo! You can’t be serious!” I’m asked in disbelief as I serve the little brown malty balls of delight with an afternoon cup of chaa. Yes, my friends, you heard that right, Quinoa!

Let me tell you a little story…

A couple of months ago I stared wide-eyed in disbelief at a recipe before me. I was excited at first, then immediately I slumped back into my seat and thought to myself, “Really?!”

Okay, I am exaggerating just a little… but if you’ve donned the gluten free hat, you know what I mean. “What if… what if it was another gluten free disaster like so many before?” Although the question loomed before me, it wasn’t enough to stop me. The pictures on the blog were enticing enough, plus, I had all the ingredients on hand. Half an hour later, I was like “Man, these are awesome!” Malar, had hit the nail on the head – thank you for introducing me to the quinoa ladoo Malar 🙂

I came across the quinoa ladoo recipe on Malar’s food blog when looking for a gluten free alternative for the Whole-wheat ladoos I grew up eating. The recipe she has is just delicious!

Since then, I’ve been playing around and tweaking the recipe, just a teeny bit. I’ve added almond meal, chopped almonds and coconut sugar to the ladoos making it little lower on the glycemic index. I have made it several times now and my kids love it! As for my ladoo loving friends, it seems to have past the test!

Quinoa Ladoo

1 cup quinoa seeds (yields about 1 ½ cups flour after its been ground to a fine powder)

3 tablespoons ghee

½ cup almond meal or ground up almonds

1 cup coconut sugar

¼ cup raw almonds, chopped

a large pinch of ground cardamom

½ cup whole milk

To make:

Pre-measure all your ingredients and have them ready.

Grindthe quinoa seeds to a fine flour. (I use the nutribullet)

Heat the ghee in a wide based saucepan.

Add the quinoa flour and almond meal.

Sauté the mixture on a medium low heat, stirring continuously to prevent it from burning.

The mixture will eventually turn a sandy brown color and gives off a nutty aroma. This may take up to 5 minutes.

Remove the saucepan and reduce the heat a little more.

Addthe coconut sugar, chopped almonds and cardamom.

Stir quickly until combined. It may stick a little to the bottom of the saucepan.

Return the saucepan to the stove.

Pour in the milk and gently stir to combine the milk evenly.

Do not over mix or stir vigorously, as the ghee will separate from the mixture resulting in a dry ladoo.

The ladoo mixture will look slightly glossy and much darker (picture below).

Cool for a couple of minutes or until you can handle the mixture with your hands.

Scoop a little of the mixture into your hands and with your palms shape into little pingpong sized ladoos.

Quinoa ladoos taste great warm or at room temperature.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week.

In the above picture, I had over stirred the quinoa ladoo mixture and it resulted in little pools of ghee at the base of the ladoo. They were a little drier than usual but they still tasted great! I personally didn’t mind the little pools of ghee since I love the taste of ghee straight up anyway 😉

One of my many experiments 🙂

Quinoa ladoos are the perfect sweet treat to celebrate the upcoming year, especially if your gluten free and are watching the sugar!

I absolutely love writing these posts just for you and most importantly I adore reading your comments! Thanks for making my blog a reality 🙂

We almost halfway into January but I couldn’t go with out wishing you a…

Happy New Year!!

Wishing you a year full of peace and harmony and loads of Gheeful moments!!!

Ok I made these yesterday afternoon and have wrapped some up in a fancy box to give to my sweets-deprived husband as a surprise tonight. My son helped me make them and was crazy about them, as was my mother-in-law. These are really tasty and I will definitely be making them again because they are yummy, easy to make, and are also a pretty healthy treat! I made them with soy milk and coconut oil and it worked beautifully – I haven’t tried the traditional ones so have nothing to compare them too, but I have to say that the vegan wheat-free version is delicious!! Thanks for posting this!

Wow HD! I’m so excited to hear that the recipe turned out good for you. Yay!! That’s just incredible! I can’t wait to hear how your husband likes his surprise treat. Also, I love the fact that you made them with your son and he enjoyed it. I made these with my daughters class at school a few weeks back and the teachers said they were talking about them the next day too 🙂

Thanks for the ghee wish 😉 Hey, I’m delighted to be the first one to introduce this much loved indian sweet to you. It’s usually made with wheat products or chickpea flour, amongst others. My kids love eating them, especially when they freshly made.

I have never heard of a ladoo before this, so was not shocked about the quinoa. 😉 But omg, these look and sound amazing! I was just thinking of making a batch here and now for my husband, who eats neither wheat not sugar, when I realized that they contain ghee. I’m tempted to try the recipe using Earth Balance, but I know it will not compare. What do you think?? Should I even bother, or is it the ghee that really makes it?

Hi HD! I apologize for not explaining for the benefit of other’s what a Ladoo is. Ladoo is a sweet dish usually round in shape and made of various ingredients, typically from wheat or from chickpea flour. I hope I’m not too late with answering your question. I haven’t had Earth Balance before but i’m assuming because it is made with olive oil, the flavor profile may not work. I would try making it with ghee, as it does add another dimension to the flavor of the ladoo. I hope you are able to try it out soon HD.

Hi, and thanks so much for your response! Unfortunately my husband does not eat dairy either. 😦 Makes cooking a real challenge sometimes! I’m not sure if there is any good substitute for ghee, so perhaps this isn’t the dish for him. But maybe I can try it for myself sometime (when he isn’t around to get jealous, of course!). 😉

Hmmm … So it took me a couple of minutes to think about a non-dairy substitute for ghee that will work in this recipe. I’m thinking that coconut oil could be a good substitute for when your husband really can’t take watching you eat the ghee filled quinoa ladoos 😉

Hi Debra,
Hope you’re doing well and having a good start to the new year. Yes, for the most part I ussually substitute coconut sugar cup for cup. Sometimes it does tend to taste less sweeter. In that case, I usually add a little more next time to the recipe or leave it just as is.
Hope this helps 🙂